Credit

Caption

X-40A aircraft. Technicians servicing the robotic X-40A aircraft on a runway after a free flight. The X-40A is an 85% scale model of the X-37 space plane, a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) used to examine technologies for space vehicles that will reduce the cost of putting payloads into space. Testing the X-40A will reduce possible risks to the larger X-37. Here, the X-40A carried out comp- lex vehicle manoeuvres during its gliding descent. It was released at a height of 4.5km from a Chinook helicopter. The flight and landing, which occurred at Dryden Flight Research Center, USA, on 12 April 2001, were controlled by on-board syst- ems. The X-40A was developed by Boeing and NASA.